[disoriented]

Attempting to do this would result in an internal short through the pack itself (unless the two 4S "halves" of the main pack can themselves also be seperated, in which case this would be equivalent to charging two 4S packs in parallel).

Or did I misinterpret this thought in some way?

You're quite right. I had to sit down and have a little think about it. There's no way to hook up the cells in parallel without introducing a short somewhere.